Strawberry and Pink Prosecco cupcakes

I thought I'd share a couple of pics of my first attempt at a celebration cupcake for last weeks Iron Cupcake competition. I tried to make a strawberry and pink champagne cupcake (I used rose prosecco in this attempt as didn't want to waste pink champagne!) as I thought it was a perfect celebration cupcake and also quite seasonal as I found some lovely strawberries in Waitrose.

I looked through some recipes and decided to opt for the Sprinkles Strawberry cupcake recipe features on Martha Stewart's website as it had a video and looked ever so easy. The recipe was easy to follow, I substituted the milk for champagne and the cake actually worked out quite well - except it was very sweet, In fact a little too sweet for me but still perfectly tasty - a moist strawberry sponge.

I used Sprinkles strawberry frosting recipe, substituting the vanilla for some more prosecco and adding slightly less strawberry and a wee bit more booze. I'm not sure if it was because it was the hottest day of the year or because I'd faffed about with the recipe but this frosting just would NOT work. I mixed it, without overmixing but nothing happened, it just stayed kinda gloopy. The recipe says it should be dense and creamy like ice cream but it was more runny and tasty like a strawberry soup. I added a touch more icing sugar, which did nothing much except make it sweeter...grrr. I was getting more and more harassed as it was hot enough to bake a bloody cake in my kitchen without the oven so once it was thick enough to just dollop on I gave up and did just that. It kind of set once on the cupcake but it in no way resembled the frosting that Sprinkles have on their cupcakes. The second photo above was taken a little while after I dolloped the frosting on - when I took the case off it kinda oozed down the side of the cake - as you can see they don't particularly look like the pic below that came with the recipe.

Although the frosting did not set, and it was a little sweet, it was flavoursome and reminded me of strawberry ice cream.

I would probably make these again but follow the recipe properly and just make plain old strawberry cupcakes rather than try to faff around with them!

Stick to the Percy Pigs I say...

So today was the launch of the Marks and Spencers cupcake. I went along to the hell on earth that is known as Covent Garden on a warm day hoping to get my hands on a box. They had a lot of promo material out in store for them and they seemed to have sold quite well -lots of boxes had been smooshed/turned upside down but I don't know if that was due to a stampede of cupcake lovers or just staff chucking them onto the shelves! But there were a good 20+ boxes left so I happily got my mitts on a box :)

So, what were they like?! I'll let the blurb on the box set the scene...

A marriage made in heaven...Moist cupcakes with rich strawberry compote centres and lashings of strawberry buttercream on top

it goes on...

a moist vanilla sponge filled with a strawberry compote centre, decorated with a swirl of strawberry buttercream and a sprinkling of glitter

So..the buttercream was quite nice and there was quite a lot of it, although I wouldn't go so far as to use the word "lashings". The frosting, and the tasty but rather sweet compote made them kind of worth the money, however the crumbly cake base really didn't. It just wasn't right - I can't really explain it too well except to say it was crumbly, not of the correct consistency of a cake and, well, a bit oily - there was a film left on the cupcake case after eating. I have to add, in their defence, of the supermarket cupcakes we've tried these were the nicest (due to a nice frosting mainly), however if you were to do a blind taste test on these with any of the "proper" American style cupcakes I harp on about so much on here I don't think there would be any comparison!

I do find it rather amusing they employed a cupcake guru, spent loads of money sending him to NY etc, only for him to return and make a cake that you really would not find in any decent cupcakery in NY, or London for that matter!! If they'd offered me and Kara (and any of the other readers of this blog who love cupcakes..yes Manny you could've come too) a freebie trip to NY I reckon we'd have come up with a tastier, more authentic cupcake for them!

Finally, I know that M&S promo material is making a big thing about rape oil being the norm in NY bakeries, (which I disagree with ), but it occurs to me that perhaps this has a lot to do with the shelf life properties of the cakes rather than adding anything - these cakes have use by date a week away from today, any fresh cupcake would be rancid by then! I stand by my "no oil in cupcakes" mantra!

I heart the Tarts!

I heart Outsider Tart's cupcakes and it seemed like AGES since I'd had one so I made sure we didn't miss this months cupcake weekend (even though we really should've gone to the laundrette today as our piece of plop Hotpoint machine decided to stop working for like the zillionth time and we have a tonne of washing to do before our holidays!)

Anyways back to OT's cupcake extravaganza. I was beginning to think we'd never get there due to a footwear issue with Manny, however when we got there thankfully there were still some cupcakes left...if not someone would've been getting up early tomorrow to go to Chiswick for some!

I got one unfilled, strawberries and cream and one filled, orange poppy (filled with OT's own lemon curd which is FAB!) and Manny had a milk chocolate and a filled almond joy (filled with almond cream which I snaffled a bit of and it was gorgeous)!

Seriously I'm not just saying this cuz these guys are really nice but they have definitely got a magic touch with cupcakes - they were all utterly fantastic! I cannot tell you how gorgeous the strawberries and cream one tasted -there just aren't they words, and I love the fact that every time I go there I try something different - who'd have thought of a poppy seed cupcake? The only word I can really use to describe them all is YUMMY!

Christmas shopping drives me to cupcakes

I know I don't need any excuse to have a cupcake but seriously Oxford Street on a Friday afternoon was enough to drive me straight to the nearest cupcake outlet - Lola's cupcakes at Selfridges (Which resembled hell on earth at lunchtime on Friday!)

After deciding not to buy the bacon chocolate I keep reading about as it was £5.99 and I'm not sure if it would be eaten - I headed to the Lola's counter and although the Thanksgiving cupcakes looked a little bit cute I wasn't willing to pay an extra 60p for a vanilla cupcake with a leaf on (haven't these people heard of the credit crunch..lol) so opted instead for a couple of red velvets and a strawberries and cream for me and an Oreo and cream for Manny.

My strawberry cupcake was one of the moistest, best cupcakes EVER...seriously it was so soft it melted in my mouth, and the combination of strawberry and white chocolate was just divine! And the fresh strawberry frosting was yum-tastic, oh and it was glittery too!

Manny very much enjoyed his Oreo cupcake - and it kept him quiet (except for a few hmmm's) for a good few minutes, and seemed to go a long way to cure his Saturday am hangover, and prepare him for a Saturday trip to Ikea!

The red velvets were absolutely gorgeous - the frosting was just right and the base was really soft and tasty - my only grumble was that it wasn't as red as I like it to be! I know the red colour adds nothing much really but I do like them to be v.red! Bring on the food colour!

I'm the proud mother of...

an Ocado delivery van weighing in at a rather hefty three and a half tonnes, named Strawberry Cupcake!

Let me explain - a few weeks ago I got an email from Ocado , (THE best on-line grocery delivery service EVER!), with a competition to name an Ocado van and I choose the rather spiffy Strawberry Cupcake ...and it won (out of over 5,000 possible strawberry names I'm told!) so my adopted van is now driving around London delivering shopping - how great is that!!!?

AND I got a cute little certificate of adoption to prove it and I get a little model van with my next order!

If you spot my van please let me know -I've been looking but no luck yet!

Celebrating the release of Sex and the City

Today the movie FINALLY opened in London and I went to see it at the first showing of the day. It was also the first time I EVER went to the cinema alone but I just HAD to see it! And it was worth it - funny, sad, romantic, rude - I loved every second and cried like a girl at the end :) I could gush on about the movie for hours but I shalln't as cupcakes dont even get a mention in it!

Afterwards I felt I just HAD to have a cupcake so I headed to Selfridges to get a Sex and the City cupcake from Lola's but alas they were no longer doing them and more horrifically they only had TWO cupcakes left - both their cupcake of the month, Strawberry with white chocolate so I snapped both of them up :) As usual they were really nice, the frosting was really nice and not too sickly but the base was a little dry but it was still a great cupcake - I especially liked the strawberry bits in the base and the yummy chocolate coated strawberry on top of the lovely frosting!

Nothing to do with Lola's as such but, the staff in Selfridges just get ruder by the day - the man was soooo busy avoiding doing work I nearly had to hit him with a baguette to get his attention!

Also I read in the paper today that the Berkley Hotel is having a Sex and the City afternoon tea this week including cupcakes - its a bit pricy at £45 but if you're interested further info here. They're also doing Sex and the City nights, with cupcakes, more info here.

Finally - go see the SATC movie NOW!! Honestly it rules - some cupcakes would make it even better!

Oh yeah and I didn't eat both cupcakes myself - I took one to Manny at work as a surprise before he went off to a gig tonight :)